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Letter: Gates a good columnist, but wrong on bill

The Clarion-Ledger, The Clarion-Ledger
5:46 p.m. CDT May 5, 2014

A Jackson hair salon displays a round, blue window sticker declaring: ?We don?t discriminate. If you?re buying, we?re selling," Tuesday, April 22, 2014, in Jackson, Miss. The display stickers are the brain child of some Jackson business owners who display and have distributed them to other businesses as a show of support for gay and lesbian customers. The group sees this as an effort to push back against a religious-practices bill recently signed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP)

One favorite political columnist I follow at The Clarion-Ledger is native Mississippian Jimmie Gates. He writes with the credibility of experience and gives the reasoning that is behind his opinions. I may not always agree with Mr. Gates’ conclusions, but his sincere arguments never offend.

In that consideration, Mr. Gates recently wrote a column critical of the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He said that the legislators did not think about the consequences of the new law, “subjecting the state to further ridicule for those who continue to see it as backward thinking.” He did not identify who “those” are, but his column concluded: “It seems creating laws based on religion may not be the wisest thing to do.” I disagree.

Religion teaches moral conduct. Journalists, politicians, and private citizens invoke morality as the basis for their opinions all the time. Regularly, conservatives assert that forbidding school prayer is not moral. And liberals claim that preventing the expansion of Medicaid is not moral. Those are good arguments. Who is against morality?

Rather than there being no place for religion in the law, there is good reason for it. The federal and state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts recognize the ancient western philosophy of place for religion in the law. To paraphrase Jimmie Gates, and Ben Franklin, it seems: Creating laws based on religion is the wisest thing to do.